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Posts Tagged ‘speed up pc performance’

4 Tips That Can Optimize Your Computer

March 25th, 2010

Having an unresponsive, hanging, or awfully slow PC is just one of the key reasons why you need to optimize your computer. Even if your PC isn't really that old or that slow, it's still vital that you perform regular maintenance on it in order to make certain that it always works at its peak performance and would continue doing this for a longer time. Try these measures to speed up your computer.

Safeguard Your PC

Viruses, worms, and other forms of malware entering your computer system is a big factor that could really cause your PC to bog down. For this reason, protection against all types of virus attacks ought to be a priority for all computer owners. The very first and most basic security measure that you can take is to put in anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, and to set up a firewall. These three have different functions but they all work to keep your system free of destructive perpetrators.

Use the Latest Versions for Security Software

If you've already followed the first step then you should also keep those safety programs up-to-date. Worms and harmful software can evolve faster than you would expect and time is of utmost importance. If an upgraded version of the anti-virus program or firewall you're using is released, then update your version as well.

UpdateYour Hardware Too

Insufficient RAM or hard disk space may also lead to a slow-responding PC. The more applications you add or files you store within your hard disk, the chances of your computer being unable to cope up with all the data also increases, hence the need to augment hard disk space. To further optimize your computer, check also the RAM and see if it's big enough for your particular Windows edition. XP needs a RAM of 512 megabytes, while for Windows 7 and Vista, a 2-gigabyte RAM is needed.

Maintain Your Registry

A cluttered and disorganized registry is also a usual suspect why a PC slows down. The registry acts as the hub of all that goes on within your computer system including installing or removing programs. If any files remain during an uninstall process, the computer would have to go through all the unnecessary information to get to the data it needs. A registry cleaner would greatly help by maintaining your registry, deleting old, unwanted files and speeding up your computer.

Getting your PC back up to speed isn't really that difficult . A quick fix here and there could do a lot of improvement. With these simple options, you can optimize your computer without having to spend a lot.

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Tips on How to Speed Up Your Computer

March 23rd, 2010

Of the many computer users and owners worldwide, you may be one of those always trying to find new methods on how to speed up your computer. In today's digital age, we use the computer for just about everything, whether it's for work or personal stuff. But so many things can cause your PC to bog down, be slow to respond, hang, or even crash completely. Fortunately, once this happens, it needn't be the end of its life. There are still so many possible options you can try. Listed below are some of them:

Give Your Graphics Board an Upgrade

Many computer users mistakenly assume that only a full-time or avid gamer would require a powerful graphics board. There may be some truth to this but it can't be denied as well that your computer could also perform at slower speeds as you run more graphics-heavy programs. If you use Vista or Windows 7 for instance, your graphics board could already be using quite a lot of your graphics board's capacity as these two operating systems are a bit heavy on the fancy effects for the user interface. If you've got a relatively new PC, choose a board that will fit into a PCI-express slot. Older models on the other hand, would require either a PCI or AGP slot.

Remove Idle Applications

Unknown to you, there may be a considerable number of programs or applications that will load as soon as your computer boots up. Chances are, you're not even aware that these are actually running in the background, especially if you don't use them all the time. But the resources that they take up could contribute to the slowdown of your computer, so this is one area where you can check if you wish to know how to speed up your computer.

How do you do this?. On your PC using Windows 7 or Vista, go to Start and in the area that says Search programs and files, type msconfig, then press Enter. Next you will see the System Configuration window, and when you choose the Startup tab and look under Command column, you can see a list of the programs that load when your PC boots up. Just uncheck those programs {you don't want to load on startup}. 

Optimize Your Network Too

While being linked to a local network is important to many primarily for business reasons, it can also contribute to the slow processing time of your computers. To maximize the benefits of your network connection without sacrificing your PC's speed, use updated drivers for your network card, and the most recent firmware for your router.

All would agree that a slow computer is usually a big headache and in some cases, cause you to lose time and resources. But if you are knowledgeable of some troubleshooting strategies on how to speed up PC performance, there's no reason why you can't do something about a sluggish PC.

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Can Windows XP Registry Cleaners Cure My Computer Woes?

February 4th, 2010

If you use Microsoft Windows, then you might have heard about a Windows XP registry cleaner. While it’s not a fix-all for all the troubles that may be ailing your computer, it is definitely a useful tool that every computer user should have. If you want to know how to speed up computer performance that’s been affected by a murky registry, then read on.

Simply put, the registry is the hub of configuration data that your computer utilizes that track of all software you install on your computer. It also monitors how each program relates to other programs within the registry.  During the install/uninstall processes, software may leave unusable path names within the registry. This extraneous information can cause your system to work slowly and improperly which can be quite a headache for you.

Finding a Windows XP registry cleaner is not a hard thing to do. Finding a good one can be another matter. You have two basic choices of programs. You can go with a free program downloadable from the internet or you can buy one from a software company. There are pros and cons for either of these choices.

A smart consumer performs product comparisons, and reads reviews.  It shouldn’t be any different in the case of a Windows XP registry cleaner.  Before downloading or installing any software on your computer, you should thoroughly research the product, and you may even want to consult a professional for suggestions. 

If you choose to download a program, you may end up getting a great product for free, but you run the risk of getting something cheaply made or even loaded with malware. If you’re hesitating to get a program you have to pay for, you can probably find a demo or trial version from their website that you can try first. If you like it, you will be more comfortable purchasing the program. By buying a program, you also get access to customer service that you would not get from a free program. 

One of the most important things to look for in a program is a backup utility. If the program is not capable of backing up your registry before cleaning it, do not waste your time. If your program does create a registry error and you have no backup, you can make your problems much worse than they were before. 

A registry cleaner works by removing old or out of date connections. A good cleaner can also repair bad connections if a program has recently been installed or changed in a way that impacts its registry entries. If you purchase quality Windows XP registry cleaners, this is one of the benefits you may get over a free program. But regardless of your choice, it is important to have a registry program for your regular computer maintenance.

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Speed up PC Performance with these Easy Tasks

February 1st, 2010

Everyone is looking to speed up PC performance without spending a lot. The good news is, you might not have to rebuild your computer or buy a new one. There are some simple steps you can take to keep your computer running smooth.

Before you even think about taking on any cleanup tasks, you absolutely must back everything up. While there is very little risk associated with these simple cleanup routines, there is always a chance for something to go wrong. And things seem to go wrong far more often when you are unprepared.

Another great way to speed up PC performance is to keep the registry clean. This can be done with a registry cleaning program. You can find free versions online, but you will definitely want to check out the local computer store for a high quality piece of software that doesn’t come with the threat of infecting your computer with malware or viruses. A dirty registry is a common culprit when it comes to computers loading slowly or even crashing when loading programs. Using a registry cleaner on a regular basis should be a part of any regular maintenance schedule.

Imagine how hard it would be to read a document if the words and sentences were randomly arranged on the page. It would be very difficult to read and would take you twice as long to get through the document.  This same process happens within your hard drive when your computer needs to search for information to run programs if the information is scattered all over the place. This happens in the course of time when using your computer. You can improve the computer’s performance by regularly defragmenting your computer.

Many programs have a nasty habit of adding themselves to your auto startup menu. This means they are loaded every time your computer starts up. That can lead to some serious delays. Windows comes with the ability to remove certain programs from your auto start menu. While you should never remove programs you don’t recognize, as they may be vital to the function of Windows, you can turn off char programs or music stores so that your computer loads faster at startup.

While it isn’t something that everyone has to consider, often times computers on networks share drives. This can be great if you want to access information on another computer, but they do cause a longer load time when you boot up. Since your computer has to load all connected devices, it just takes longer for it to identify and initiate the connected drives.

Memory itself could also be an issue. If these simple free steps do not solve your PC speed troubles, you may just need more or new RAM. Bad RAM can lead to many problems and not enough RAM can lead to a slow PC. RAM is relatively inexpensive, but you can always just buy it as a last resort. If you want to speed up PC performance, consider trying the easy and free methods first.

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The Simple Things I Did To Speed up My Computer

February 1st, 2010

I recently noticed my computer was slow to respond and producing errors. Now I’m going to tell you the easy things I did to speed up my computer with the help of a registry cleaner. Before I get into the specific tasks, I want to explain what the registry is. Within your computer system, the registry is a catalogue of sorts that the operating system accesses every time an action is performed.  For example, when I run Microsoft Windows, the computer searches through the registry for files to open and run the program. Because I constantly install/uninstall programs for my home business, extraneous files are left within the registry causing my computer to run slowly.  In fact, I started to receive various error messages that caused not only frustration, but it also was wreaking havoc on my work. 

Prior to using any registry cleaner or doing any kind of disk cleanup, it is so important to back up your files. It may take a while, but is definitely worth the time in case something goes awry. Losing important files can be more time consuming and can prove to be a bigger headache in the long run.  

The first thing I did to speed up my computer was I purchased a registry cleaner. I avoided downloading a free one in fear that it wouldn’t work properly, or that I wouldn’t have access to updates. I certainly didn’t have time to mess around with poorly developed software. The registry cleaner performed a disk cleanup which deleted those unneeded files within the registry.  Now my computer doesn’t have to read invalid files to get to what I am commanding it to do.

The next best thing you can do to speed up your computer is to run scan disk and defrag. These are so important that Microsoft included the utilities with every copy of Windows. But you should know that if you have not run these programs before it may take a while for the process to complete. With modern hard drives being so large, you might want to start the programs before you go to bed as they can take hours to complete.

In the past, I utilized different network drives in order to share files between other computers. But out of sheer laziness, I didn’t take the time to disconnect from these network connections. This time in order to improve speed, I accessed the “Disconnect Network Drive” under the “Tools” tab, under My Computer to cut off the connections. This also helped with boosting PC speed.

One of the biggest problems I had when trying to speed up my computer was an extremely slow load time at the initial startup of my computer. The time it took from pressing the power button to actually being able to open a program could be several minutes. This is often because programs sneak their way into you startup programs when you open them. Some popular chat software and music download tools can add themselves without you even knowing it. So if you find yourself closing programs upon startup that you don’t need running, check your startup programs and delete anything that isn’t necessary.

These steps are easy enough for anyone to perform and with the exception of purchasing a registry cleaner, they are all free. Should you opt to buy PC maintenance software, Registry Mechanic by PC Tools is one of the programs we recommend. If your computer is running slowly or taking forever to boot up, you might consider following these steps. It took me next to no time at all and helped to speed up my computer a great deal, so I’m confident that it will do the same for you.

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Tips to Make Your Computer Run Faster

November 5th, 2009
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Making your computer run faster involves a series of steps and tweaks that would require patience and a bit of computer know-how. First of all, the PC’s key maintenance requirements must be accomplished. This step comprises of a through disk cleanup and a scan of an updated antivirus. To activate disk clean up, right-click your hard drive, choose Properties and push the Disk Cleanup button.

Startup

Once you’re done with the basic necessities, pay attention to your PC’s startup. It’s possible that you have dozens of programs activated at startup, making it slower for the PC to get ready. It will be infinitely better if you just disable these programs at startup and open them only when necessary. This will save your computer time readying the program before you can use the system. To do this, click Start, choose Run and type “msconfig” in the box. A new window will appear, click the Startup tab and uncheck all the boxes that you do not require at startup. However, don’t uncheck the antivirus icon since this should always be running in your system.
Remove Inactive Softwares

One of the reasons why your computer is slowing down could be the amount of programs installed in the system that you don’t really use. If you have idle softwares in your system, you might uninstall them and free important space from your hard drive. This can be done by going to Start, Settings, Control Panel and choosing Add or Remove Programs.

Disk Defragmentation

This one could take hours to accomplish, but it’s a very effective step. Defragmentation will rearrange your files so that you will be able to access your computer faster. You can do this by right-clicking a hard drive, selecting Properties, clicking tool and choosing the Defragment Now button. It is advisable that you do not use your computer while the system is defragmenting.

Another good option involves a registry scan for your database. There are also various tweaks and programs on the internet designed to speed up the booting process of your computer. However, be very weary when downloading such programs because these could seriously affect your system or may even carry viruses in your drive.

Make sure that you have a backup of all your files in the event that something gets out of plan. Hopefully, if you stick with the basic steps, then you won’t be facing that problem anytime soon. Fortunately, the mentioned functioned are installed in most computer systems.

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